Career Resources for USA Job Seekers

Techniques for Acing Your Next Interview

Staying Relaxed Before Your Interview

By far the best way to walk into an interview calm, cool and confident is to simply rehearse beforehand. Practicing beforehand helps your mind derive and thoughts into coherent statements that will be easier to recall when you're on the spot. Practicing also helps you work out how you want to phrase your answers, so that you know that you’re saying exactly what you mean to say in an understandable way. Obviously your practice question won't be the exact questions the interviewer asks, however if you prepared well then you are almost guaranteed to have a lot of overlap in the topics.

Handling that Dreaded Interview Silence

If you find yourself in an interview situation where you feel your interviewer may be using interview silence as a technique against you, by simply making you feel uncomfortable, you can face it head on. Push back by asking something such as, “I would be happy to share more examples of my experience, is there a specific competency or area of strength you would like me to speak to?” Showing you are confident and not easily shaken is a great way to maintain pose and show you are comfortable speaking about the position. Don't come off as arrogant, but show strength.

“What Are Your Weaknesses?” - That Damn Question

Top recruiters know that a strong candidate is one that is self-aware and knows how to navigate the corporate world in a way that allows their talents to shine, while managing their weaknesses. Your goal in crafting an answer for this tricky question is to show you are aware of your need for development in a particular area and that you have a plan to mitigate it. Don't fall for the old advice of saying something like "I'm just too much of a perfectionist." Do you honestly think the interviewer hasn't heard that hundreds of times? An example of a good answer would be: “I can say that while I’m strong in speaking about data when I lead meetings, one area I am working on improving is my depth of knowledge in statistics. So I recently picked up a few books on that to help fill in my gaps and strengthen my foundations.”